A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a request to initiate a communication flow associated with a subscriber and identifying one or more parameters to be monitored for the communication flow. The method further includes extracting one or more bits from packets associated with the communication flow; the bits are used to determine an operating system associated with the communication flow. A policy decision can be executed for the communication flow based on the operating system associated with the communication flow. In more specific examples, the bits are sent to a next destination in response to a threshold being reached for at least one of the parameters. The parameters can be associated a volume parameter or a time parameter. The policy decision could include blocking traffic associated with the subscriber, initiating billing, redirecting the communication, managing a quality of service level for the communication flow, etc.

Provided is a method and apparatus for controlling a charging condition and policy by a first entity, in which information for policy decision information is received from a second entity and an acknowledgement message is transmitted to the second entity. A policy based on the information for policy decision information is determined, the policy is transmitted to a third entity, and an acknowledgement message for the policy is received from the third entity.

A communication method for identifying a packet flow based on a predetermined rule and processing a packet belonging to the identified packet flow, the communication method includes: setting in a first node a plurality of first rules that identify a plurality of packet flows, respectively; and setting in a second node a second rule that identifies the plurality of packet flows as a group.

In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining, at a first provider edge (PE) included a plurality of PEs multi-homed to a first customer edge (CE), traffic intended for the first CE, wherein the traffic includes a first indication, the first indication being configured to identify the traffic as flood traffic. A forwarding PE included in the plurality of PEs suitable to use to forward the traffic to the first CE is identified based on identifying traffic as the flood traffic. The method also includes determining whether the first PE is the forwarding PE, and providing the traffic to the first CE using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is the forwarding PE. When it is determined that the first PE is not the forwarding PE, the traffic is filtered using the first PE.

A method operates a network, wherein multiple clients are connected to a server for accessing an application that is provided or running on the server. The application is tunneled within one or more corresponding flows between the clients and the server. A device for per flow scheduling of the flows prioritizes the flows based on at least one of application characteristics, application requirements, flow characteristics or flow requirements. The prioritizing by the device takes into consideration a change or a variation, over time, of at least one of an application characteristic, an application requirement, a flow characteristic or a flow requirement.

Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments are described herein for controlling policy in integrated small cell and Wi-Fi networks (ISWNs). It is recognized herein that multiple actors within an ISWN may have needs or preferences that conflict with each other, and that the best way of reconciling those conflicting needs is not always to simply give one actor preference over another. As described herein, optimum management decisions may be dynamically based on current network conditions and preferences of multiple actors.

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A user equipment (UE) may act as a relay device and receive a message from a source device. The message may include a latency indicator. The UE may identify a delay-tolerance metric associated with the message based on the latency indicator. The UE may identify, for each air interface of a set of air interfaces, a cost metric associated with transmitting the message. The UE may select an air interface from the set of air interfaces based on the delay-tolerance metric and the cost metric. The UE may transmit the message to a destination device on the selected air interface.

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for sub-service flow based mapping in a cellular communication system. A sub-service flow User-plane interface between an Enforcement Point and a network control system (NCS) is defined. Relation and coordination of the sub-service flow User-plane interface associated with sub-service flow management actions on a Control-plane interface is defined. In-band packet marking is created to dynamically assist the identification of sub-service flow identities and receive corresponding quality of service (QoS)/quality of experience (QoE) treatments.

The subject matter described herein relates to methods, systems, and computer readable media for testing network equipment devices using connection-oriented protocols. In some examples, a method for testing a network equipment device under test (DUT) includes executing, by a network equipment test device, a test script to test the network equipment DUT using a connection-oriented protocol. The method includes inserting, during a connection establishment process of the connection-oriented protocol for a network flow to the network equipment DUT, a flow-identifying sequence number into a sequence number field of a first message of the network flow. The flow-identifying sequence number is a number uniquely identifying the network flow from other network flows. The method includes receiving a second message from the network equipment DUT and determining that the second message belongs to the network flow by extracting the flow-identifying sequence number from the second message.

A network device may make a determination that a first backhaul connection, which serves a first base station, is congested and that a second backhaul connection, which serves a second base station, is not congested. This determination may be made based on a first periodic data cap imposed on the first backhaul connection, a traffic load on the first backhaul connection, a second periodic data cap imposed on the second backhaul connection, and a traffic load on the second backhaul connection. In response to the determination, the network device may configure a value of a cellular communication parameter utilized by one or both of the base stations. The configuration may comprise periodic adjustments of the value of the cellular communication parameter. The periodic adjustments may cause one or more mobile devices to be handed-over between the first base station and the second base station.